1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for setting information in a mobile terminal, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for setting information such as language, time, conversion units and a character encoding scheme corresponding to a user's language using country information in the mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a wireless communication system, a mobile terminal provides a multi-language interface, a unit-conversion function, time information, and so forth. A user has to manually set country information and time information to use an interface, a unit corresponding to a language, and a geographic location which are currently used by the user. That is, conventionally, when initially using the mobile terminal after purchasing it or moving to another country, the user experiences the inconvenience of manually setting a language, time, a unit, and so forth.
Furthermore, character encoding for a Short Message Service (SMS) is performed using different schemes for different languages used in different countries. Thus, the mobile terminal performs character encoding in a local encoding scheme based on local information.
However, when the user uses the mobile terminal, which has been used in the user's domestic or home country, in a foreign country (which uses a language that needs a different encoding scheme than a native language used by the user) by using a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card, or when the user uses a mobile terminal, which is purchased in the foreign country, while using the SIM card used in the user's domestic or home country, SMS transmission and reception may fail because the character encoding scheme set in the mobile terminal is different.
For example, when a user travels from a country, which uses the English language, and attempts to use a mobile terminal in a country which uses a language other than English, such as Chinese, Japanese, or the like, by using a prepaid SIM card, an SMS message including English may not be encoded and thus fail to be transmitted, or even if transmitted, the SMS message cannot be checked by a reception mobile terminal because of the failure to be encoded.
Moreover, when the user uses a mobile terminal, which the user purchases in the U.S., while using a SIM card which is used in China, an SMS message including Chinese may not include any contents, even if it is received.
To solve the foregoing problems, conventionally, a method has been provided in which a user of a mobile terminal directly sets a character encoding scheme. However, in this method, the user has to manually set the character encoding scheme, which is a troublesome and inefficient process.